First Tour Stops Exceed Expectations

Professor David Bell presents at the L.A. stop of the Knowledge for Action Lifelong Learning Tour.

During the next 18 months, Wharton faculty will travel worldwide on the Knowledge for Action Lifelong Learning Tour—from San Francisco to Munich and beyond—to connect with alumni and deliver rich content of a caliber only Wharton can provide. At the first event in Los Angeles on September 11, more than 75 alumni joined Wharton’s David Bell, the Xinmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor, for an interactive discussion about digital marketing.

“There is a rich culture and tradition that all Wharton students are part of on campus, and Lifelong Learning programming allows us to be the students and innovators we’ve all wanted to continue to be,” says Evan Eneman, W’99, and president of the Wharton Club of Southern California, who attended the event.

“I do find that my desire to apply, thankfully be accepted and ultimately enroll in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania was intended to extend well beyond my four years in Philadelphia, and this programming allows me to re-engage not only with the intellectual power that stems from the School, but also the wealth of alumni that it has graduated,” he continues.

Eneman is not the only Wharton graduate who has expressed the desire to continue a knowledge-building relationship with Wharton and his fellow alumni. During the past 18 months, the Wharton Lifelong Learning staff has conducted numerous interviews with graduates from around the world, who represent all Wharton degree programs and are at various career stages. The goal is to discover ways to build upon existing alumni programming. The result: Lifelong Learning initiatives that help Wharton graduates develop as professionals and enable them to learn about topics and issues that are relevant in business today, such as management, soft skills, innovation, entrepreneurship and beyond.

Karl Ulrich, Wharton vice dean of innovation and professor, talks with alumni after the Seattle event.

Lifelong Learning’s growing repertoire of opportunities extends to online resources, webinars, on-campus events, Global Alumni Forums and more; the tour is just one avenue through which alumni can access rich Lifelong Learning content. Like all Lifelong Learning programming, its content is shaped by alumni feedback. Lifelong Learning collects information from alumni surveys, focus groups, interviews and interactive online Topic Tournaments to determine what subjects truly impact alumni in a region. Together, this data shapes the information delivered during each event.

The Knowledge for Action Lifelong Learning Tour lecture in Los Angeles was followed by a Seattle event on September 13 about innovation, presented by Karl Ulrich, vice dean of innovation and CIBC Professor of Entrepreneurship and eCommerce.